The Charge

We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship…

The Case

After a wildly successful series of direct-to-video releases designed to
entertain and educate infants (while narcotizing older children and adults), The
Baby Einstein company teamed with Disney to steal a little of the toddler
demographic from Dora the Explorer. The result was Little
Einsteins, which premiered on Playhouse Disney in 2005. The animated show
follows the adventures of a multicultural quartet of elementary school kids with
a love for music. The team's leader, Leo, has a passion for conducting (what
6-year-old doesn't?); his sister Annie loves to sing; Quincy can play just about
any instrument imaginable; and June is all about dancing. (These abilities come
in handy when they have to, say, play music diminuendo in order to open a
secret door on a Mayan pyramid.) In each episode, the team jets off in Rocket,
their sentient (but mute) rocket ship, to complete a mission. In the process
they experience a famous piece of classical music as well as a painting,
sculpture, or other form of visual art. Plus, they visit places like an arctic
glacier, Mount Everest, Icelandic geysers, and Malaysia's Petronas Twin
Towers.

Little Einsteins: The Christmas Wish has four holiday-related
episodes of the series:

• "Show and Tell" The Little Einsteins have show and tell
at school. Quincy brings his musical instruments; June brings her ballet
slippers; Annie brings a microphone to amplify her singing voice; and Leo brings
his conducting baton. Unfortunately, Rocket's arch-nemesis, Big Jet, shows up
and ruins the fun by stealing the kids' stuff. Their mission: bust into hot
pursuit to catch Big Jet and recover their things. The featured music is "Carmen
Suite No. 1" by Georges Bizet. The featured art is Mayan architecture.

• "The Christmas Wish" While hanging out in their secret
underground headquarters, Leo, Quincy, June, and Rocket receive wish boxes from
Santa Claus (enabling them to wish for any gift they want). Annie doesn't get
one. Having determined that some sort of clerical error must have occurred, they
take off in Rocket to track down Santa and makes things right. The featured
music is "Für Elise" by Ludwig Von Beethoven. The featured art is "Starry
Night" by Vincent Van Gogh.

• "The Wind-Up Toy Prince" June tells a story about a
wind-up toy prince who is a master of dance. When an evil mouse steals the
prince's "winder-upper" and takes over the kingdom of toys, the Little Einsteins
create a mission for themselves: find the winder-upper and rescue the toy
prince…even though he's a fictional character from June's story. The
featured music is "The Nutcracker Suite" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The
featured art is "Little Dancer" by Edgar Degas.

• "The Northern Night Light" Out for a cruise in Rocket,
the team hangs out for a while with a herd of Lapland reindeer. When one of the
calves wanders off and gets lost, they decide to find it. In the process, they
meet a friendly arctic fox. The featured music is "Flight of the Bumblebee" by
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The featured art is "The Road in front of
Saint-Siméon Farm in Winter" by Claude Monet.

Dora the Explorer gets no play in my house, so I can't really draw
comparisons between it and Little Einsteins. What I can tell you is that
Little Einsteins does for toddlers what the Baby Einsteins DVDs do for
infants: It provides them with a rudimentary but visually stimulating
introduction to the art and music at the foundation of Western culture.
Moreover, my three-year-old loves the show—loves it. Sure, I tend
to get bored while watching it and ask annoying questions like, "Why would
Rocket try to drive up the side of Mount Everest when he can fly?" But the show
isn't made for me. Meanwhile, my boy just ignores me, his eyes glued to the
bright animation as he answers the questions cheerfully posed to him by the
show's characters and pats his knees in order to power up Rocket (man, how I
wish my car was powered by knee patting). Little Einsteins knows how to
captivate its target audience.

The show looks great on DVD. The animation sports loads of primary colors,
all of which are vividly rendered in the full screen transfer. Detail is as
precise as the animation allows. There are no digital artifacts. Dolby stereo
surround tracks are provided in the original English as well as French and
Spanish dubs. All are clean and as punchy as stereo surround tracks allow.

The only extra is a "Magic Mission Mode: Holidays Around the World" game
that will interest any tyke who digs the show.

If you are a toddler, have a toddler, or are an adult who likes to dialogue
with animated television characters, then Little Einsteins is for you.
With the holiday season fast approaching, Little Einsteins: The Christmas
Wish is as good a disc as any to start your collection.